But with 34.5% of Chinese web users still rocking IE6, it could be a long wait before the browser that we all love to hate is no more.

Microsoft has announced the launch of Internet Explorer 6 Countdown, which – according to Microsoft – has been designed to monitor the decline in IE6 usage to less than 1%.

At the launch of the Internet Explorer 6 Countdown site Microsoft admitted that IE6 “lacks modern web standards and provides an unsatisfactory user experience” – sentiments that many developers have shared for a very, very long time. However, with 34.5% of China’s web browsing population still using Microsoft’s antiquated browser, we could still be in for a long wait.

Visitors to the site can view global IE6 statistics, add a countdown to their own sites, and also integrate an upgrade bar, which auto-detects if a visitor is using IE6 (and naturally promotes them to install the most up-to-date version of IE).

Ahead of the upcoming Release to Web of Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft is keen to win back the hearts and minds of disenchanted designers and developers, for whom IE6 has caused continual headaches (and probably a few ulcers, too).